State officials to decide whether to help Lubbock east-west freeway

AUSTIN - State highway officials will decide Thursday whether to provide funding that will speed up the construction of the east-west freeway through Lubbock.

Carl Utley, Lubbock district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, said he's "very optimistic" that funds will be allocated to build a portion of the freeway.

"All the feedback's been positive," Utley said. "We'd be very disappointed if we didn't get three projects funded."

Lubbock leaders said they envisioned an east-west freeway to improve the traffic flow through the city since the 1960s. The four-lane freeway will run eight miles from Loop 289 on the west side of Lubbock to Interstate 27 on the east side and will connect with all major highways entering the city.

Total cost for the construction is estimated at $273 million, but TxDOT divided the work into a series of projects. How quickly the freeway is completed depends to a large degree on the Texas Transportation Commission, a three-member panel appointed by the governor.

A Lubbock delegation asked the commission in May for $20 million to complete the freeway through the Texas Tech campus and construct frontage roads from University Avenue to Avenue L. But the city is competing for funding with communities across the state.

TxDOT spokesman Randall Dillard said the commission received project funding requests totaling more than $1 billion but has only about $200 million in strategic priority funds to divvy up.

"Obviously, competition will be stiff," Dillard said.

A Lubbock Chamber of Commerce spokesman said a local commitment to provide a substantial amount of money to build the freeway should improve the city's chances to receive funding. Lubbock's Metropolitan Planning Organization dedicated $8 million - its entire allocation of urban mobility funds for fiscal year 2003 - to the project.

"That really showed the commission we're committed to this project," said Michael Reeves, the chamber's vice president of governmental affairs.

Dillard said the TxDOT staff is still working on its recommendations for the use of the funds.

Last year, the commission allocated $17.8 million to start the first phase of the freeway - construction of the Loop 289 interchange in West Lubbock. The cloverleaf interchange at Brownfield Highway and the loop will be replaced with a three-level interchange, and an overpass will be built across 50th Street.

The MPO also committed $8 million for that phase of construction, which is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2001.

Utley said the projects included in Lubbock's latest funding request have been prioritized at TxDOT's direction.

Listed as the top priority, Utley said, is the portion of the freeway that will run from Memphis Avenue to University Avenue through the Tech campus. Congress already has allocated $20 million to build that stretch of the freeway.

An additional $17 million is needed from the state to complete an interchange with Fourth Street, said Steve Warren, the district's director of transportation planning and development.

Utley said the district office rated the construction of the frontage roads leading from the Tech campus into downtown as the second and third highest priorities. The cost for those two projects is estimated at about $11 million.

If the commission approves the funding, construction of the freeway through the campus and the frontage roads that will run into the downtown area could begin in 2002, Warren said.

The fourth priority is a $14.6 project that Lubbock had requested last year as part of the first phase of construction. Warren said that project, which is considered the least likely to be funded at this time, entails building the main lanes of the freeway from the western city limits to Chicago Avenue.

Commission approval would enable work on the main lanes to be started around the same time as the loop interchange, Warren said.